Our View: Not what we thought?

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Journal Star

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Posted Aug. 26, 2014 at 9:34 PM
Updated Aug 26, 2014 at 9:36 PM

Posted Aug. 26, 2014 at 9:34 PM
Updated Aug 26, 2014 at 9:36 PM

Even when state government was in the deepest of its budget doldrums, seemingly incapable of doing anything right, the one thing amiable Gov. Pat Quinn always had going for him with most Illinoisans was “well, at least he’s not corrupt,” as his immediate two predecessors so obviously were — or so their juries decided.

Two recent scandals have stung the Quinn administration and brought that into doubt.

First, a damning Illinois inspector general report says the Illinois Department of Transportation allegedly violated the rules if not the law against purely political hires, with Quinn’s chief of staff and deputy chief overseeing the patronage employment the governor had pledged to stop following the abuses of Rod Blagojevich. A former transportation secretary, Ann Schneider, has said that Quinn’s office pushed the “vast majority” of whom-you-know-not-what-you-know, clout-before-competence hires, and that “neither I nor my staff were in a position to reject the recommended individuals for these ... positions as no additional interview process was required.” Quinn has denied any wrongdoing. Let’s just say that anytime an Illinois governor’s name shares space in the same sentence with Blagojevich, it’s bad news.

Meanwhile, a federal criminal probe is ongoing into the $55 million anti-violence program, the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, that state Auditor General William Holland has found flawed and that critics say was nothing more than a political slush fund to help get the governor elected in 2010.

Illinois employment is up, the state’s unpaid bills backlog is down, some critical legislation — such as pension reform — has been signed that eluded Quinn’s predecessors, but these reports threaten to obscure those achievements. If more satisfying explanations aren’t soon forthcoming ... well, the clock is ticking toward November.